My Top Twenty Video Games: # 3

We're in the home stretch! My third favorite video game of all time is none other than Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King. Not only was it one of the most painstakingly-crafted games ever when it came out, but it still looks damn good even today.

I've played a lot of RPGs in my time, but no RPG series has stuck with me longer than Dragon Quest. The original game was the first JRPG I ever played, way back in 1989 - about six years before I picked up my first Final Fantasy game. I loved the NES Dragon Quest games, known back then as Dragon Warrior because the Dragon Quest name was trademarked in the US as a brand of pen-and-paper RPGs, but then the series disappeared from the US since Enix declined to localize the Super Famicom games. I didn't play them again until Enix brought Dragon Warrior back ot the US on the Game Boy Color. I certainly had no idea until the mid-90's that the series was such a profound cultural force in Japan. Throughout its entire 25-year-run, it has always had the same three core designers working on it: writer and director Yuji Horii, illustrator Akira Toriyama, and composer Koichi Sugiyama. Almost no other video game series can claim to have such a stable design team.

The trio which has guided Dragon Quest throughout its long history was something of a mixed blessing. Dragon Quest was a series notorious for being resistant to change. It continued to use a turn-based battle interface first popularized by the Wizardry series in the 1980s, where most of the action in the battle was narrated in text. This worked well for the series throughout the 8- and 16-bit eras, owing to the fact that RPGs weren't expected to be as visually or technically sophisticated as action games and platformers. But by Dragon Quest VII, Yuji Horii realized things needed to change. Dragon Quest VII was a PlayStation game that had started out as a Super Famicom game and taken nearly six years to complete. While it had plenty of content and was still the best-selling PS1 game ever in Japan, it still looked like a 16-bit game with even more low-resolution sprites than DQVI, which had been released on the Super Famicom. Enix's then-rival Square had embraced the PlayStation and its CD-ROM technology wholeheartedly and had upped the stakes greatly with its state-of-the-art 32-bit Final Fantasy games, which were not only gaining ground on Dragon Quest in Japan, but had become breakout hits in the United States as well.

And so, for the series' PS2 outing, Enix began shopping around for a developer which had a good grasp on modern gaming technology, yet would be able to ensure that Dragon Quest was still unmistakably a Dragon Quest game. And they found that in Level-5, a developer which got its start a year before the PS2 came out. Level-5 made quite a name for itself with the Dark Chronicle (Dark Cloud) series and would go on to create the hugely popular Professor Layton series. Under the direction of Horii and Akihiro Hino, Dragon Quest VIII got a full 3-D facelift.

The end result was one of the most visually stunning and technologically sophisticated games of its time, and that is something that nobody ever thought would be said in connection with a Dragon Quest game. And it was rewarded with Dragon Quest VIII becoming the series' first true success in the United States.

And boy, does this game look good. This game was a big reason why I wasn't initially impressed with the Xbox 360, which came out at the same time as DQVIII did. It's almost like a playable Akira Toriyama animated film. The game's world is cel-shaded, fully 3-D and is completely explorable, something even Final Fantasy X struggled with. Never before had a Japanese-made RPG had such a huge wide-open world. The world map is drawn to scale with your characters, allowing you to explore vast plains, forests, and deserts in search of full-sized villages and castles, and unlike Final Fantasy X, your character isn't travelling through what is essentially a corridor. Eventually, you'll even gain the ability to fly freely around this world. The game's characters bear Toriyama's distinctive artwork, being painstakingly-constructed 3-D models. The battle scenes are now fully animated, with your characters visible as they battle their way through hordes of famous Dragon Quest monsters like slimes, drackies, and chimaeras. The in-battle animations are often humorous, as you see your characters and monsters alike doing funny dances and taking pratfalls in order to defeat each other.

Dragon Quest VIII has had one of the most memorable casts of characters in history. As usual, you control a nameless Hero who looks very much like Son Goku - he even turns into a Super Saiyan when his limit-break tension is raised to its maximum limit, an extra touch that appeared only in the American version of the game - who was the only surviving soldier at Trodain Castle, accompanied by his fire-breathing pet mouse, Munchie. He is accompanied by a rough bandit named Yangus, who is the breakout star of Dragon Quest VIII. Yangus has a heart of gold, sports all kinds of Cockney mannerisms, including calling the Hero "guv", and serves as the comic relief of the story. Jessica is a voluptuous noblewoman who leaves her home after fighting with her mother about not being "ladylike" enough. She has gag boobs that would do Tina Armstrong proud, but Jessica is the rare combination of being both a powerful mage and a powerful melee fighter. Her ability to do great damage with either magic or weapons being offset somewhat by her low HP, making her something of a glass cannon. During the game, she even briefly becomes a boss enemy after being possessed by the villain. Angelo is the party's healer, a priest-in-training who likes to wander off from his abbey and engage in debauchery at the local village's tavern, making him an embarrassment to his pious and ambitious brother Marcello. King Trode, the eponymous "cursed king", travels with them turned into a toad-like creature, which causes him to be an outcast in the human world. His daughter Medea, who is in love with the Hero, has been transformed into the horse that pulls the party's wagon. They are in pursuit of an evil jester named Dhoulmagus, who stole the powerful artifact that cursed the kingdom of Trodain, but Dhoulmagus turns out to be simply a body host of a demon named Rhapthorne, who possesses other characters in the game once his original host is defeated. Rounding out the main cast are a number of mostly charming supporting characters, including hilarious characters like Morrie and his quartet of bunny girls at the Monster Arena. During your journey, you'll be asked to help out the people you meet by engaging in quests which range from monster hunts to quite fanciful pursuits like finding a mystical bard to bring closure to a king who has let his kingdom fall into ruin out of grief for his dead wife. The supporting cast is not all smiles and sunshine, however, as your party will also find itself at odds with the Church, which is feeling the corruptive influence of Rhapthorne and is also undergoing a behind-the-scenes power struggle involving Angelo's brother, Marcello. For the first time in the series, and only for the American version of DQVIII, Square Enix incorporated voice-acting to bring the cast of characters to life. However, instead of tapping the regular pool of American and Canadian anime voice-actors as Final Fantasy did, they instead used actors and actresses from British theatre, in keeping with the series' traditional British-style localization. The voice acting in Dragon Quest VIII is among the best I've ever heard, partly because the game's British cast did not try to mimic Japanese style voice acting, which sounds good in Japanese but grating in English. Instead, they drew upon their Shakespearean roots.

This epic quest is backed by another magnificent soundtrack from Koichi Sugiyama. One of the most popular composers in Japan, Mr. Sugiyama has been cited as a key influence by nearly every video game composer in Japan, including Nobuo Uematsu. He is my favorite video game composer of all time. It is said that when Dragon Quest I was being made, this famous composer actually contacted DQ creator Yuji Horii and asked him for permission to compose the soundtrack for Dragon Quest, and he has been involved with the series ever since, even the spinoffs. For every Dragon Quest game, there is a fully orchestrated version of the soundtrack known as a Symphonic Suite. But where Japan got a standard chip-tuned soundtrack, Square Enix incorporated the orchestral Symphonic Suite version of the music into the American version, again giving Americans a bonus that Japanese gamers didn't get.

I've talked about how the game looks and sounds, but how does it play? The answer: it plays like any other Dragon Quest game, meaning it has a basic turn-based interface. If this sounds like DQVIII's beauty is skin-deep, it shouldn't. Part of the reason why Dragon Quest has always kept to a turn-based interface is because it doesn't necessarily need to "evolve," Its system is very supple and versatile and always has been, allowing for tense, strategic battles particularly against boss enemies. However, the fact that the battles are now fully animated instead of simply being played out in text does a lot to make the experience more immersive. Furthermore, DQVIII allows you to customize how your characters develop. Each character has four different skill sets they can pour the skill points they earn when they level up into, divided into various weapon and magical skills, as well as personal skills, notably sex appeal in the case of Jessica. These skill trees allow for a surprising amount of customization of your characters, and the choices you make in character growth determine whether you'll have a character that's an absolute bruiser against a single foe, good against multiple foes, or can use their personal skills to charm or otherwise disable an enemy. Your characters can also forego attacking in favor of building up tension which can be stored up until the character transforms, and the more tension you've stored up, the more powerful an attack you can unleash. This is a critical ability during a few of the boss battles. Unlike in Dragon Quest V, you can't directly recruit monsters for your party, but once you've unlocked the Monster Arena, you can capture a number of "legendary" monsters and summon them to fight on your behalf for a few turns. The way in which you mix and match your monster teams can enable the monsters to augment each other; as an example, try building up a team of all Slimes...

With its stunning visuals and fun gameplay, Dragon Quest VIII was the series' first breakout hit in the United States, and led to the DS re-releases of the older Dragon Quest games being released in the US, including the two 16-bit games whose original versions were never localized. For me, personally, it made me fall in love with the first RPG series I ever played all over again. Dragon Quest VIII to me is one of the best examples of why the PS2 was so successful for so many years - it came out when the PS2 was waning as the 7th generation was beginning, yet it was so good that I chose to keep playing my trusty PS2 over the first few years of HD games. For a series known for being stodgy at times, Dragon Quest has become one of the most daring RPG series out there, and DQVIII was the game that started it all.

Finally, it's worth noting that Dragon Quest VIII was the game that really bonded my wife and I together before we got married. The summer of 2006, me, my wife, and my step-daughter all played this game together. One of the best summers I ever had.

Thanks, as always, for reading!

In other news:

Speaking of Dragon Quest, my first official review article, for DQVI, has just been published over at Real Otaku Gamer! (Shameless plug)

The gaming gods have been smiling on me of late. First, Namco finally decided to localize Tales of Graces F. Now, Catherine has been formally announced for a summer release. With Yakuza 4 and Skyward Sword due this year and MvC3 and DQVI already out, 2011 is shaping up to be one of the best gaming years in recent memory. Somewhere, I can hear my wallet crying out in pain.

My wife has really been enjoying Rift. I've gotta admit, this under-the-radar MMORPG has the potential to be a successor to World of Warcraft. She's also looking forward to Guild Wars.

This blog series has come a long way since I started it in July of last year. Can you believe that I've only got two more games to go?

Comments (18)

I recently got into this series

So I still need to get this one. Want to finish V (which is so far my favorite in the series) and get to VI first though, finish that trilogy. Still, this one looks amazing, the graphics hold up really well.

Treasure jack pot

This game is HUGE. Also the orginal ending you get isn't the real one. To get the better conclusion you have to fight the many forms of the hidden boss I believe. The game also pulled a few fast ones concerning the characters. I guessed wrong on the hero's love interest at least once. Jessica,Angelo, and Yangus are also some of the most quirky and endearing characters ever in rpg history!

Slime

It's too bad I don't have more time to play games like this. My favorite Dragon Quest game is Rocket Slime on the DS. Have you ever played that one?

Nintendo is having DQ6 events all across the country at select Best Buys. They were held last weekend and will be on this weekend as well. Check your local Best Buys and see if one around you is having one. I went to one last weekend and got a DQ6 poster.

this was the first and only

DQ game I ever played. I always meant to play through some of the others, but I just haven't been able to get around through it yet! I remember doing a 48 hours marathon with my college buddy Steve on this game (No sleep, just beer, pizza, and smokes!). We eventually beat it after taking turns every so often! It was a good game and I enjoy it, leading to the necessity to play the others! Good review and solid blog Andreas!

Replies....

yariX: I've been a fan of the series for a long time myself. The games are time-consuming, but it's easy to lose yourself in them.

Greenman: How are you liking the series so far? I assume you've played IV as well? I got DQ I-II and played DQIII on GBC as well as NES. DQIII and IV were originally NES games and were among the deepest games on the NES.

BrokenH: DQVIII had a lot of sidequests including the one where you could learn your true origins. There was as much to do in DQVIII on the side as there is in any Fallout game. Armor Project packs these games full of content.

bshirk: The best parts of the game are still to come after you get the ship, so I hope you give it another go. Let me know how it goes. And yeah. I'm praying for Xillia. Everytime I see a new batch of screens I want it even more. It's one of the most amazing-looking games I've ever seen.

JoshSupreme: Cel-shaded graphics tend to hold up better than more realistic graphics. Wind Waker, Okami, and Viewtiful Joe still look wonderful, as does this game.

Cary: I have played RocketSlime. There was another one in Japan as well. I'll have to check out these Dragon Quest events and see if they've got one at Best Buy. I'm glad Nintendo is promoting the series.

cly5000: I wish I still had the time/energy to do marathons. I'm getting old. :(

Jazom_Maxuz: Watch the video in the blog and you'll see the Hero turn into Super Saiyan Goku. As for getting the game, as long as you have a PS2 or a first-generation fat PS3, you should be easily able to find the game. It was very successful and easily found. Let me know if you can't find it at a used games store.

Epitomizes the JRPG

Aside from not having as robust a battle or character building system as I would like, the game is everything that I ever liked about JRPGs: color, adventure, discovery, charm, soulful music, innocence. Were this and FFXII the last JRPGs to have great towns? I think so.

If only Phantasy Star -my first JRPG that epitomized all those things- would get such a treatment today.

Awesome Game

I still remember how excited I was for this game back before I got a job and had very little money. I never even had prior experience with the series, but I still embarassingly told my sister I wanted a nerdy "Dragon Quest" game for Christmas.

To be honest though, such a long game was the perfect game to get at the time. I still have to resist the urge to replay it for that very reason though. I spent I believe 130 hours doing very few sidequests and promising myself I would get to all that on my second playthrough...

wow #3

It is cool to see the top 3. I enjoyed what I played of this game. It didn't appeal to me continue. Of course I have it and could go back to it. I should. Its hard though. There are more games that appeal to this generation and last. Your blog though does motivate me to put time in the future to do so.

Replies again....

Alice: Dragon Quest X is in the works for the Wii at this time, although it's been speculated it could end up on 3DS. So far, these speculations have never been substantiated.I wish they'd make a Dragon Quest game for the PS3 in the traditional style.

Machocruz: Tales of Vesperia still has great towns, although I realize it's probably not what you are looking for. It's also a 2 1/2-D overhead adventure, more along the lines of the PS1 Final Fantasy games than FFXII. Tales of Xillia, however, looks like it may be a full-on 3-D RPG. As far as a PS sequel goes, I think the closest we're ever going to get to that is Skies of Arcadia, which was a last-generation game. Pity, too, I'd love to see what they could do with a traditional RPG done using the CANVAS engine (the Valkyria Chronicles engine).

halochief, jgusw: Dragon Quest VIII is a beast of a game, but I'd rather have one big game with that much stuff to do than have a bunch of smaller games. I long for the days when one game could completely capture my attention like that.

Xcite: DQVIII is a rewarding journey. If you get tired of the main quest, there are always side quests you can do.

First of all great article

Secondly I love Dragon Quest 8. I'll admit though that when I first played it I didn't really feel like it would get me or anything, but I'm glad I kept with it. For sure in my top 5 PS2 games. An RPG that I would recommend to anyone.

Love love LOVE this game

I feel completely confident in saying this is one of the best RPG's of all time. I wonder when S-E will unveil Dragon Quest X, because it's sure to be an epic if it's not relegated to a handheld like 9 was.

Hey y'all....

kbjami: I didn't expect to enjoy DQVIII as much as I did, yet it is my third-favorite game ever. I would recommend it to anyone.

starfoxcommander: Dragon Quest V was among the best of the best of the 16-bit generation, shame it wasn't released here until 2009. Surprisingly, I haven't played IV yet! Oh, well, another game to anticipate, I guess. :)